Alexandria Day Trip – Part 2 | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 1 (Part 7)

Egypt Travel Blog: 10 DAYS Egypt Explorer - Felucca Cruise & Red Sea

History of Alexandria – Introducing Alexandria

I will talk about a little bit about Alexandria before moving onto my tour experiences in the city. This historic 2500-year-old coastal city is the 2nd largest city in Egypt and was founded by Alexander the Great in 331 B.C.

Alexandria was the largest city of its time and was the second most important city during the Roman Empire. When Ptolemy built the famous Alexandria Library housing 500,000+ books, it became the centre of knowledge. Alexandria attracted the most famous scholars, scientists, and philosophers around the globe at that time.

Regrettably, the famous lighthouse was destroyed by an earthquake. The Alexandria Library was burned down by Julius Caesar’s army.

Marcus Antonio or Mark Antony, Julius Caesar’s right-hand man, moved to Alexandria to marry Cleopatra after Julius Caesar’s death in 44 B.C. Once Mark Antony and Cleopatra died and Augustus Caesar became emperor, Alexandria served as a simple province of the Roman Empire.

After going through many conflicts and changing rulers, present day Alexandria started to thrive again. The Alexandria Library was reconstructed and completed in 2002 as The Bibliotheca Alexandrina or, in English, The Library of Alexandria.

That’s what I gathered about Alexandria in brief. We are about to stopover for a break in an open mall-like service station. I will try to get a coffee and look around during the break if I get enough time. I will talk about it in the next post.